Tusks cut to size: Sigh of relief for Ayyappan Kutty and other elephants

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Ayappan Kutty, one of the star tuskers, which grace festival parades and temple rituals in Guruvayur and other regions got a fresh lease of life after its inconveniently overgrown tusks were cut into shape and polished.
The tusker at Punnathoor Kotta whose tusks had grown so close together that he couldn't raise his trunk. With the tip of Ayappan Kutty's tusk trimmed, the pachyderm can now freely lift and swing its trunk. Smitha of Perumpillicheri, who has the Forest Department's approval for cutting elephant tusks, performed the procedure.
Ayappan Kutty, a young tusker, was struggling because his tusks were too close together, hindering the use of his trunk. Meanwhile, the elephants Shreekrishnan (with sharp tusks) and Guruvayur Nandan (with large tusks) were also reeling under the pain of ill-shaped tusks which needed trimming.

An application to the Devaswom and Forest Department for tusk trimming was stuck in bureaucratic red tape for quite some time. When this happened, Manorama newspaper published a news article on June 10th, along with a picture of Ayappan Kutty whose tusks were close together. The Forest Department responded promptly. They visited Punnathoor Kotta the same day to measure the elephants' tusks. The order to trim the tusks arrived on the 20th.
The tusks of Ayappan Kutty, Shreekrishnan, and Guruvayur Nandan were trimmed and shaped on Tuesday in the presence of Devaswom Deputy Administrator M Radha, Social Forestry Deputy Ranger M P Anil Kumar, and veterinary doctors Mithun and Charujit Narayanan.